OUR INSPIRATION
Ask not how we got here, but how we’re getting ourselves out
Today, amidst the raging floodwaters of liquid modernity, we wade in the aftermath of a culture that has been usurped—stolen right out from under our noses. As is so often the case, it happened slowly and then all at once.
And now, as we stand knee-deep in the damp ashes of tradition, community, order, intellect, and the sacred, we must ask ourselves what we can do to counter the widespread ruin and incoherence of the present and reclaim the future. While the tactics may be varied, our directive is clear.
We must take action. We must return to sanity, renew the spirit, and re-enchant the imagination.
From a fallen culture rises manalive media group
Founded by genuine, joyful people of goodwill, we will move the culture (i.e., the whole life of a people, a quintessentially conservative phenomenon) in our direction by bringing to life enlightening, elevating, and entertaining stories of a decidedly moral persuasion—aiming not just to shine a light on what is beautiful, good, and true, but reignite the flames of a lost tradition that gives form to and nourishes Western Civilization.
We will begin to reclaim the culture.
One powerful story at a time.
“A DEAD THING GOES WITH THE STREAM. ONLY A LIVING THING CAN GO AGAINST IT.”
G.K. CHESTERTON
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WHO WE ARE
WE ARE creators ON A MISSION TO Catalyze CULTURE THROUGH THE ART OF VISUAL STORYTELLING
Inspired by Manalive, G.K. Chesterton’s most joyful novel, a parable and battle-cry against spiritual acedia, Manalive Media Group is an emerging growth media venture that aims to Nourish the Soul™ through the production of classic masterpieces as well as original creations of uncommon worth.
Aesthetically, through a confident hauteur and astringent sensibility, consistently carried out with goodwill and good humor, as well as a humble yet critical engagement with culture, our productions will be thematically diverse, stylistically inventive, and masterful in technique, defined by a lightness and delicacy of style, a balance between tradition and innovation.
To this end, the underlying substance of our enterprise foundation—solidified through hard work, unwavering commitment, confidence in our abilities, and consistently applying learnings to strategy and execution—will prove instrumental to reliably producing a steady stream of powerful, expressive, memorable works of art, profitably.
“CREATION REQUIRES AN UNCOMMON MIND AND STRONG WILL SERVING AN ORIGINAL VIEW OF LIFE.”
JACQUES martin BARZUN
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FOUNDING CREATORS
Douglas Dye
co-founder | chief executive officer
From the City of Angels to Dar es Salaam, Wall Street to Tierra del Fuego, Douglas has been a servant-leader on behalf of Fortune 100 companies, leading government agencies, and international non-profit organizations.
As an explorer, entrepreneur, and now co-founder and chief executive officer of Manalive Media Group, Douglas has built and led teams worldwide with competence, common sense, and courage—and by developing others to top performance through commitment to excellence, creativity, and good humor.
Beginning his career in the jungles of post-civil war Nicaragua as a business development volunteer in the United States Peace Corps, Douglas has lived throughout the United States and in six countries across Latin America, Africa and the Middle East, and has conducted business in more than 20. Highly curious and collaborative by nature, he earned his M.B.A. from the Thunderbird School of Global Management, and a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of California, Riverside.
A tragic optimist and fallible knight-errant, Douglas was born and raised in the Rocky Mountains of Montana, to where he has recently returned, now hanging his hat in Big Sky Country. He begins each day with an early-morning workout along the Yellowstone River and ends it with a meditation on the Mysteries of the Rosary, a spiritual sword made by the Divine Craftsman.
Tim Crane
co-founder | chief operating Officer
Tim is an entrepreneur, filmmaker, and co-founder and chief operating officer of Manalive Media Group. He has helped produce feature films that have premiered at the Cannes and Rome Film Festivals.
Most recently, Tim executive produced 2016’s Money Monster, a crime drama/thriller directed by Jodie Foster, starring George Clooney and Julia Roberts. While studying English at USC, Tim produced three short films that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. Inspired by that success, he moved into producing TV commercials.
In 2001 Tim was struck by a drunk driver, suffering a life-changing injury that left him a functional quadriplegic. With deep gratitude to be alive, his handicap has not slowed him down much.
A native Californian who resides in the City of Angels, he is a voracious reader and an active participant in his church and several Catholic and spinal cord injury charities.
Amy Giuliano
Chief creative officer
Amy is a writer, educator, and digital creator whose entrepreneurial spirit and creative vision have enlivened a variety of academic and professional pursuits. She holds degrees in Art History from Yale University, Theology from the Angelicum in Rome, Philosophy from the École Saint Jean in France, and Catholic Studies from Seton Hall University.
Amy received training in virtual reality technologies, visual storytelling, and video editing at Yale's Center for Collaborative Arts & Media, French language and literature from the Sorbonne in Paris, and archeology from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
A dual citizen of the United States and Italy, Amy spent a year living at a monastery in the French countryside before serving as a guide to the art and architecture of Rome in conjunction with her theological studies. And in 2018, she founded VADIS VR, a Yale-funded start-up that creates virtual tours of artistic patrimony in Rome, Jerusalem, and beyond.
Amy regularly contributes sacred art essays to the Magnificat, teaches Art History, and offers invited lectures at a variety of institutions from the Patrons of the Arts in the Vatican Museums to the Pontifical Gregorian University. She oversees the integration of Manalive’s creative muse and leads the development of new projects.
Ryan O’Connell
Chief technology officer
Ryan is an entrepreneur, software developer, and leader with a strong track record of innovation and growth in such varied arenas as film, technology, and politics. He is fundamentally motivated to identify and develop hidden potential, create greater efficiency, and secure measurable results that have a tangible, positive impact on the world.
A self-taught full-stack software developer, Ryan co-founded and/or served as Chief Technology Officer at award-winning communications, app, and influencer marketing companies featured in hundreds of publications around the world. Before transitioning to the tech field, he began his career on the business side of the film industry working for producer Steve McEveety (Braveheart, The Passion of the Christ).
Born and raised in Colorado Springs, Ryan attended Franciscan University of Steubenville where he played rugby and studied abroad at a 14th-century Carthusian monastery in Austria. Upon graduating with a Communications degree and Business minors, he moved to the City of Angels. After nearly a decade in Santa Monica, Ryan headed to Washington, DC for four years. He now enjoys the flexibility of living and working anywhere.
Autodidactic by nature, Ryan is an avid reader, ceaseless learner, insatiable traveler, and proud son, brother, and uncle in an amazing family.
“NO FORM OF ART GOES BEYOND ORDINARY CONSCIOUSNESS AS FILM DOES, STRAIGHT TO OUR EMOTIONS, DEEP INTO THE TWILIGHT ROOM OF THE SOUL.”
ingmar bergman
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WHY WE EXIST
art is the signature of man
As G.K. Chesterton wrote, art is about being articulate, speaking directly to the heart. Whether a painting, sculpture, play, or moving picture, art exists to reflect beauty, goodness, and truth back to the world, giving rise to an imaginative perception of reality and the vita contemplativa, the antidote to the present day confusion, degeneracy, and loss of the foundation of our humanity—what the Greek Stoics termed prosoché—the erosion of alert attention. Simply, the arts exist to awaken and keep alive the sense of wonder in man.
Correspondingly, the two guiding stars of the Manalive venture: our mission is to advance the motion picture on the road to noble artistic significance by producing classic masterpieces, as well as original creations of uncommon worth; and our vision is to elevate the art of storytelling to nourish the soul and, ultimately, reintroduce art to the rank of a positive factor for good.
We will realize these aims through an enterprise-wide strategy of Prudence (i.e., right reason in action) and Providence (i.e., divine direction), seeking out and engaging “God’s spies”—those genuine, joyful, and truly creative persons of goodwill who understand the connection between our time and eternity and wholeheartedly subscribe to our goal of creating a nobler purpose for entertainment and directing it towards the most honorable standards and a better way of life.
“NO SAINT, NO POPE, NO GENERAL, NO SULTAN, HAS EVER HAD THE POWER THAT A FILMMAKER HAS; THE POWER TO TALK TO HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF PEOPLE FOR TWO HOURS IN THE DARK.”
frank capra
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THE WAY FORWARD
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Though our times are dark, the arts remain to call us to our true vocation—and to the true light of the world
“The task of the artist is to sense more keenly than others the harmony of the world, the beauty and the outrage of what man has done to it, and poignantly, to let people know. Art warms even an icy and depressed heart, opening it to lofty, personal experience. By means of art we are sometimes sent dimly, revelations unattainable by reason, like that little mirror in the fairy tales. Look into it and you will see not yourself but for a moment, that which passes understanding, a realm to which no man can ride or fly and for which the soul begins to ache.”
—Alexandr Solzhenitsyn, Nobel Lecture (1970)
